Seamless Sally, that’s my name because damn a seam! LOL! Hi guys!! Today I want to talk about seams or the lack thereof? Y’all with me? I wrote a blog post some years ago about seaming. I was a fairly new knitter and was terrified of the kitchener stitch. WAS?? Ha! who am I kidding? I still run the other way when a pattern requires the good ole grafting. Listen I figured out toe-up socks to avoid it ok? I play no games when I am afraid. LOL
GG have you even tried seaming ? Is that your question seam lover? Well my answer is yes, yes I have done seaming AND I am still team seamless. I am laughing as I type this because it’s that ole self doubt creeping up again. This sweater from Wool and the Gang required seaming. Although I was super proud of my Vivienne Cardigan, every time I look at it I see that seam connecting the sleeve and NOPE! I don’t like it!
Why I am team Seamless
If I am to be honest. I prefer seamless because I like a nice clean seam and I struggle there. Well I use to, because the Orange Love Poncho requires a slip stitch seam and that thing is beautiful. I remember the first time I did the mattress stitch on the Easy Folded Poncho, that thing is magic. I did it under the guidance of a very kind yarn shop owner. It has never come out right sense.
So let’s discuss my favorite which is seamless. It’s flawless and stress free. LOL! I don’t have to see any bumpy seams…just smooth stitches baby. You guys know I adore Julie of Cocoknits. Her sweater workshop set me up to fall in love with the absence of a seam. I know folks say when you put the pieces together there is more structure. Yea I get that, but I haven’t missed it yet with any of my projects.
I have done quite a few patterns from Julie. You can read that post here and here. Now, tell me are you team seam or seamless? Let’s talk about it. If you are all about the seam, tell me your favorite technique. Maybe you can sway me to the dark side. LOL!
Until next time, have a fabulous day on purpose
GG
As much as I hate to admit it, there are times when seaming a garment is necessary. The structural support a sewn seam gives a garment is the difference between a thing of glory and a hot mess. Learning to seam, or at least finding wonderful videos online to follow, is another valuable tool in the bag that will allow you to take on more projects!
Stitch on!
Team Seamless here:
top reasons are:
1. seams irritate me sewn, knit, crochet… seams irritate my skin so if I can have a garment sans seams win win win
2. seamless knitting is a joy. I knit for the joy of it, not to become some perfectionist doing something the way someone else tells me I should.
3. structure does not require seams. Seams just make it easy to design the peices rather than the complicated math required to design without seams. I like math, and there are plenty of brilliant people who figured it out before me… So math isnt required unless I want to design something.
4. The look of a seamless garment just looks better to me.
Knitting designer Miriam Greenfield taught me the slip stitch seam, 50 years ago(!) and it’s still my go-to seam. For Kitchener, even with that new bag, I still go to Knitty’s Tips with Theresa – I printed out those pages years ago. But I sure do prefer seamless!!
For me it depends on the project. If I want to use a heavier fiber in a cabled sweater, seams will make it last longer. If it is a stocking stitch with wool then seams aren’t needed.
For socks I can’t get past how fiddly for up starts so I worked on Kitchener.
There is also the 3 needle bind off. Very obvious and could be an irritant but nice in the inside bottom of a bag.
Mattress stitch has become a favorite! YouTube helped that along.
The slip stitch join with a crochet hook opens so many doors for other decoration opportunities as well.
Long ago and far away the mind rebelled against seams in knitting
My fingers and my mind are still in agreement:: no seams allowed!
😂🤣
I’m on team seam! It’s lonely over here! Ha ha. I taught myself to knit and learned seamless, then the rare times I had to seam, I was terrible at it, and it ticked me off, ruining my work. So I made myself knit seamed items exclusively for a couple years, to get good at it- and discovered new (to me) designers I liked, like Jane Ellison, Jenny Watson, Debbie Bliss. I got good at seaming. Now I prefer it, seek it out. Even convert seamless patterns to seamed to suit me.
Also, I love knitting with straight single point needles, I just love the needles, some are so beautiful (love my Lykke driftwood straights right now). Circulars are great, I do small seamless items, but I love straights. I’m a Mama of a little one, work part time, and always on the go, so pieced items are my thing, I like smaller portable pieces, not long rows or bulky pieces. I can carry a sleeve with me, work a few quick rows on a lunch break or while kiddo is playing. Seamless long sleeve sweaters are bulky and heavy large items by the end, with all the turning, my hands hurt by the end and I hate working on it. So- seams and I are friends!
You go!
I’ve really not done many projects that required a seam except socks and I love Kitchener. Looking at it, I think that I have an avoidance of commitment to larger projects that might require a seam. If I can do it with two skeins, I’m happy.
My Kitchener is always messy! I must practice more
I am with you on Team Seamless. I also learned to knit toe up socks thanks to my hatred of Kitchener. There are very rare times when seam will give something the structure that s heavy garment must have. I designed, knit, and wore a trainwreck of a dress one time that really should have had shoulder seams.
There are ways around that though. And I will do the math to convert something ( I love that kind of math anyway) before I will seam up a project. I am adding a crochet stabilizer to the shoulder line on a cardigan because of the drag that the designer (not me) didn’t take into account. It happens. I like that I have many fixes at my disposal.
I also look for knit in the round patterns for that very fear. I have never done the side seaming since I started knitting from fear! I’ve watched plenty of videos on it and “think” it might be easy enough but why risk it? It has been so good to ready your postings and explorations of this knitting life. Keep it up.
Thanks for reading 👩🏾💻😊🧡
I’m on both teams, I don’t enjoy seaming, but I’m good at it (I hand sewed merino/possum knitwear for 10 years as a job because I’m good, but I don’t like it). If I love a pattern that’s seamed though I will still knit it despite that. I think if I was knitting with cotton I’d want seams to help stabilise it.
On the sewing of seams I do love mattress stitch; it was the stitch that had people at work asking how I did it; you could barely see where the seam was in the neckline when I was done. Back stitch also has its place as does whipstitch. Mattress works well for straight seams. For shoulder seams I prefer to do short rows so I don’t get the stepped edge and that’ll leave me the option of 3-needle bind off.
I’m bi-seamual, either way works for me. Back when i learned to knit, there was no such thing as seamless so you learned how to seam. Then seamless came along and i have to admit it’s really nice to be done when you’re done!
😂🤣😂 at the first line
I’m team seamless for the very reasons you are. Yes, I know they add stability, blah, blah… but seaming sucks the joy out of me. I’ve never been satisfied with my seaming, and with so many seamless patterns available it’s a skill I’m in no hurry to master.
Lol yes exactly that!!
Elizabeth Zimmerman advocated circular knitting AND put in a tip for “phoney seams” which I will quote here from her book Knitting Workshop: “a raised vertical row of stitches used to demark and indicate where seamlines would be if the garment were not circular. The seam-stitch may be slipped every third round, or, better, dropped before being cast-off or joined, and hooked up again with a crochet hook, alternately two stitches and one stitch.”
Everyone wins. #teamseamless
👀 oooo I like that!!
I learned to knit in the prehistoric era, when all sweaters were seamed. I like the fitted styles and shapes you can get with seamed sweaters.
see and I learned seamless. It all has it’s place if you ask me.
thanks for reading 👩🏾💻😊🧡
I love a top down, seamless sweater. But if I do seams, I am a perfectionist! I love the mattress stitch, it is magic. It is a puzzle, I jump at the challenge to solve. I will be your guide, when things open up again. (We are in the same state.)
For a mind blowing technique (non-knitters would say mind-blowing, really???), try the contiguous sleeve technique. I leave you with that thought.
Seams, in my opinion, are done with fabric on a sewing machine, and NOT on anything knitted.
USUALLY.
[lol]
I learned the art of the seamless sweater in about 1985 with the Knitting Without Tears book by Elizabeth Zimmerman. Haven’t made a seamed sweater since — though I am now working on a patterned sweater vest that requires a couple of the darned things. Kitchener on socks is like from a whole ‘nother planet. I wouldn’t dream of knitting socks without it. And nope, I can’t remember when or where I even learned that; socks for me came many years after sweaters.